Anna Smith, a neonatal nurse from Coeur d'Alene, filed her lawsuit against President Barack Obama and several U.S. intelligence agencies in June 2013, shortly after the government confirmed that the NSA was collecting telephone records on a massive scale under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Smith, a Verizon customer, argues the program violated her Fourth Amendment rights by amassing a wealth of detail about her familial, political, professional, religious, and intimate associations. Following a district court ruling against Smith, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho joined the case as co-counsel in July 2014 to assist in crafting the appeal.

Anna Smith's husband, Peter Smith of Lukins & Annis, P.S., who filed the case and argued on Anna's behalf to the trial court, will present oral arguments before a panel of three judges (Hon. Michael Daly Hawkins, Hon. M. Margaret McKeown, and Hon. Richard C. Tallman) at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

EFF presented appellate oral arguments in a similar case, Klayman v. Obama, last month. On Dec. 18, EFF will present arguments in San Francisco in Jewel v. NSA, asking the court to find that the NSA's mass copying of Internet communications violates the Fourth Amendment. EFF's other challenge to NSA surveillance, First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA, remains pending before a trial judge.

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